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Imus Outdoor Ads Flaunt First Amendment

Infinity-owned WFAN has placed Imus in the Morning billboards throughout the tri-state area, which has a couple of bloggers sniping. The ads showed Imus’s irritated-as-usual headshot, alongside the phrase: First Amendment at its best. And worst.

Jeff Jarvis, of BuzzMachine, wrote that the ads are offensive. Viacom, he said, did nothing to defend Howard Stern when the FCC and Parents Television Council went after him, but that the company is now trying to “exploit the First Amendment with that half-dead fake cowpoke Imus.” He accuses Viacom of having had “the real deal” (with Stern) and of letting him go (Stern’s jump to Sirius).

 

But The Media Drop’s Tom disagrees, writing that the ad is simply a single buy from a single radio station, hardly constituting a defense. “It’s an advertising/marketing ploy, not a corporate stand,” he writes. “Whether or not you want to call it Infinity’s (or terrestrial radio’s) white flag, that’s up to you. I call it smart marketing - or at least a kickstand.”